.1\DING FOCUS
What caused changes in the life of the Plains Indians? How did government policies and batt/e­
field challenges affect the Indian wars? What changes occurred in federal Indian policies by 1900? '.IN IDEA
American expansion into the West led to
the near destruction of Native American
societies.
KEY TERMS
TARGET READING SKILL Great Plains
nomad
reservation
Battle of Little Bighorn
Ghost Dance
Massacre at Wounded
Knee
assimilation
Dawes Act
boomers
sooners
Understand Effects As you read, com­
plete this chart, listing federal Indian poli­
cies in the West and their outcomes. Federal Indian Policies
Results
Treaties
Often violated by U.S.
Setting the Scene
Easterners called it "the Indian problem." What
could and should be done with western Indians so that their lands could be
used productively, as they saw it, for mining, ranching, and farming?
To Native Americans, the "problem" was a life-or-death battle. In the second
half of the 1800s, they resisted an all-out assault on their warriors, their women
and children, their homelands, their sources of food and shelter, and their ways of
life. It was a race against time. They faced their fate in varying ways-with blood­
thirsty anger, solemn faith, and cautious compromise. At last, when their time ran
out, they faced resignation, fatigue, and heartbreak.
The Life of the Plains Indians
Long before eastern settlers arrived, changes had affected the lives of Native
Americans on the Great Plains, the vast grassland between the Mississippi River
and the Rocky Mountains. The changes blended with and altered traditions that
had existed for generations.
Well into the 1800s, millions of buffalo r,mged the Great Plains. These huge
beasts provided life-sustaining supplies to the Plains Indians: meat, hides for
making shelters and clothing, and a wealth of other uses.
The opening of relations with French and American fur
traders in the 17005 allowed the Plains Indians to
exchange hides for guns, making buffalo hunting easier.
By the mid-1700s, horses' hooves thundered across
the plains. The Spanish had brought horses to Mexico
in the 1500s, and Native Americans obtained them
through trading and raids. The impact of the horse on
Native American culture was profound.
While many Indian nations continued to live mainly
as farmers, hunters, and gatherers, others became
nomads. These are people who travel from place to
place, usually following available food sources, instead of
living in one location. With horses, nomadic peoples
were better able to carry their possessions as they fol­
lowed the vast buffalo herds across the plains.
VIEWING FINE ART Artist
George Catlin lived with the Plains
Indians for years, producing more
than 500 sketches and paintings of
Native American life, including this
work, Buffalo Chase-Single Death.
Analyzing Visual Information How
does Catlin depict the equipment,
skills, and character needed to
hunt the buffalo?
I;,
1,[
Chapter 14 • Section 2
491
READING CHECK
What changes occurred in the
culture of Plains Indians before
the arrival of settlers?
The arrival of the horse also brought upheavaL Warfare among Indian
nations, to gain possessions or for conquest, rose to a new intensity when
waged on horseback. Success in war brought wealth and prestige. The rise of
warrior societies led to a decline in village life, as nomadic Native Americans
raided more settled groups.
Indian Wars and Government Policy
Before the Civil War, Native Americans west of the Mississippi continued to
inhabit their traditional homelands. An uneasy peace prevailed, punctured by
occasional hostilities as workers laid railroad track deeper into Indian lands and
as the California gold rush
1848 drew wagon trains across the plains. By the
I860s, however, Americans had discovered that the interior concealed a treas­
ure chest of resources. The battle for the West was on.
Causes of Clashes Settlers' views ofland and resource use contrasted sharply
with Native American traditions. Many settlers felt justified in taking Indian land
because, in their view, they would make it more productive. To Native Americans,
the settlers were simply invaders. Increasing intrusions, especially into sacred lands,
angered even chiefs who had welcomed the newcomers.
Making Treaties Initially, the government tried to restrict the movements
of nomadic Native Americans by negotiating treaties. Some treaties arranged
for the federal purchase of Indian land, often for little in return. Other
treaties restricted Native Americans to reservations, federal lands set aside
for them.
The treaties produced misunderstandings and outright fraud. The govern­
ment continued its longtime practice of designating as "tribes" groups that
often had no single leadership or even related clans or traditions. Federal agents
selected "chiefs" to sign treaties, but the signers often did not represent the
majority of their people. Honest government agents negotiated some pacts in
good faith; others had no intention of honoring the treaties. Some sought
bribes or dealt violently with tribes until they signed. Indian signers often
did not know that they were restricted to the reservations, and that they
might be in danger if they left.
The federal Bureau of Indian Mfairs (BIA), a part of the Interior
Department, was supposed to manage the delivery of critical supplies to
Acquiring Indian lands From the
the reservations. But widespread corruption within the BIA and among
1860s to 1900, presidential adminis­
its agents resulted in supplies being mishandled or stolen.
trations gained Native American lands
however they could: through treaties,
The government made some attempts to protect the reservations,
land purchases, forced relocation of
but their poorly manned outposts were no match for waves of land­
Indians to reservations, wars-or
hungry settlers. Unscrupulous settlers stole land, killed buffalo, diverted
simply looking the other way and letting
water supplies, and attacked Indian camps. After a treaty violation in
settlers solve the problem. In 1875,
1873, Kicking Bird, a Kiowa, declared: "I have taken the white man by
after failed attempts to purchase the
the hand, thinking him to be a friend, but he is not a friend; government
mineral-rich but sacred Black Hills of
has deceived us ...."
the Sioux, President Ulysses S. Grant
gave General William T. Sherman the
Native Americans reacted in frustration and anger. Groups who dis­
go-ahead for mining the treaty-protected
agreed with the treaties refused to obey. Acts of violence on both sides
territory. Sherman wrote that if the
set off cycles of revenge that occurred with increasing brutality.
miners were to pour in, "I understand
that the president and the Interior
Department will wink at it." Word got
out, and soon the hills were crawling with prospectors.
492
Chapter 14 • Looking to the West
Battlefield Challenges
Federal lawmakers came to view the treaties as useless. In 1871, the
government declared that it would make no more treaties and recog­
nize no chiefs.
~
............... :"~ 17'
Inconclusive Battles In 1865, one general urged the government to
"finish this Indian war this season, so that it will stay finished." Yet the
tragic conflicts would drag on for nearly three more decades.
Both sides lacked a coherent strategy along with the resources to
achieve one. They reacted to each others' attacks in a long, exhausting
dance of death. The Indians were outgunned, and suffered far more
casualties. Yet in the end, they succumbed less to war than to disease
and to lack of food and shelter.
The United States Army, spread across the South to monitor
Reconstruction, had slim resources to send to the \Vest. \Vith infantry,
cavalry~ and artillery units spread thinly across the vast region, the Army
could not build coordinated battle fronts. Battle lines constantly shifted
as settlers moved into new areas. Most confrontations were small hit­
and ' run raids with few decisive outcomes. StiU, experienced army gener­
als managed to lead successful campaigns in some regions.
Indian warriors fought mostly on their 0\\'11 turf, employing tactics they
had used against their traditional enemies for generations. Profit,
seeking whites sold guns to the warriors. Native American groups made
some alliances in attempts to defeat the intruders, but their efforts usually
failed. Moreover, the army often pitted Indian groups asainst one another.
The Soldier's Life on the Frontier
Who would volunteer for this
army? Living conditions: $13 a month; a leftover Civil War uniform;
rotten food. Duties: build forts; drive settlers from reservations; escort
the mail; stop gunfights; prevent liquor smuggling and stagecoach
robberies; protect miners, railroad crews, and visiting politicians;
and-occasionally-fight Indians. Hazards: smallpox, cholera, and flu;
accidents; endless marching; and death in battle. In fact, thousands of
recruits-former Civil War soldiers, freed slaves, jobless men-did join
the frontier army. Unlike the typical Indian warrior, the average soldier
on the plains rarely saw battle. Up to a third of the men deserted.
}{ey
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1840, Hin,mah,
too,yah,lat,kekt, or "Thun,
der Rolling Down the
Mountain," was better
known by the name he
got from his father,
Joseph, a converted
Christian. As his father
lay dying in 1871, he
made Joseph promise
never to sell their scenic, fruitful home­
land in the Northwest. The promise
proved impossible to keep.
Forced to flee in 1877, the Nez Perce
fought skillfully, but their chief found no
joy in it. In his surrender speech, Joseph
reportedly declared, "Hear me, my
chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and
sad. From where the sun now stands I
will fight no more forever."
Chief Joseph's band was exiled to
Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where all
six of Joseph's children died. In 1885,
the chief was returned to the modern·
day state of Washington, but not to his
father's land. He died in 1904 "of a
broken heart," his doctor said.
Battles
Native Americans and the army met in battles throughout the interior \Vest. In
major engagements, the army usually prevailed.
This 1864 poster promises cavalry
recruits "all horses and other plun­
der taken from the Indians. n
The Sand Creek Massacre, 1.864 The southern Cheyenne occupied the
central plains, including parts of Colorado Territory. After some gruesome
Cheyenne raids on wagon trains and settlements east of Denver, Colorado's
governor took advantage of a peace campaign led by Cheyenne chief Black
Kettle. Promised protection, Black Kettle and other chiefs followed orders
to camp at Sand Creek.
Colonel John Chivington, who had so far failed to score a big military
victory against the Cheyenne, now saw his chance. On November 29,
1864, his force of 700 men descended upon the encamped Cheyenne and
Arapaho. While Black Kettle frantically tried to mount an American flag
and a white flag of surrender, Chivington's men slaughtered between 150
and 500 people-largely women and children. The next year, many
southern Cheyenne agreed to move to reservations.
" Nothing lives long. Only the earth and the mountains. " -Death song sung by a Cheyenne killed at Sand Creek, 1864
Chapter 14 • Section 2
493
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Native American
D land,1890
•
MAP SKILLS The main map at
right shows Indian lands in 1890,
compared with the land they
roamed in 1850, shown in the
inset map above. Regions In what
directions were Native Americans
pushed as they lost territory?
{ } Sounds of an Era
Listen to a Sioux war song and
other sounds from the era of
western settlement.
Major battle site
The Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876 The Sioux of the northern Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana territories-powerfully resisted white expansion. In 1865, the government enraged the Sioux by deciding to build a road, the Bozeman Trail, through prime Sioux hunting grounds in the Bighorn Mountains. Sioux chief Red Cloud launched a two-year war to block the project. In
1866, Sioux warriors slaughtered more than 80 soldiers unc.er Captain W. J.
Fetterman near Fort Phil Kearny. The war ended in the Fort Laramie Treaty of
1868, under which the United States abandoned the Bozeman Trail and rrf"'lrF'r1
a large Sioux reservation in what is half of South Dakota today.
Sioux land protected by the treaty included the Black Hills-tall, dramatic,
pine-covered mountains in South Dakota and Wyoming territories, held sacred by
many Sioux. But in 1874, the government sent Lieutenant Colonel George A.
Custer to investigate rumors of gold in the Black Hills. He reported that the hills
cradled gold "from the grass roots down." This news was the starting gun in a
mining race that overran the region.
The government offered to buy the Black Hills, and Red Cloud entered
negotiations. But two Sioux chiefs, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, who had
never signed the Fort Laramie Treaty, left the reservation. Hostilities resumed.
In June 1876, Custer was sent to round up the Indians. He moved
his cavalry toward the Little Bighorn River in what is now Montana.
There he met the full fury of the Sioux: nearly 2,000 warriors, the largest
Indian force ever gathered on the plains. Custer, expecting a smaller
enemy, had split his forces. The Sioux fell on their prey, wiping out
Custer and his more than 200 soldiers within an hour.
The Battle of little Bighorn, or "Custer's Last Stand," stunned
Americans. The army flooded the area with troops and swiftly forced most
of the Sioux back to their reservations. Crazy Horse was killed after surren­
dering in 1877. Sitting Bull and some remaining Sioux escaped to Canada,
but starvation forced them to surrender and return to a reservation four
years later.
T
BIOGRAPHY George Armstrong Custer
1839-1876
He had the stuff of a legendary hero:
charming, fearless, and memorable in
his long, golden curls and flamboyant
uniform. He was also vain, heedless of
authority, and foolhardy-qualities that
would prove fatal.
Custer seemed to be born for war.
Daring in battle, he achieved
dis­
tinction in the Civil War. At the war's
end, he was sent to fight Indians, a
job he relished. To the Sioux, he was
the "chief of thieves" for entering their
sacred Black Hills and spreading word
of their gold wealth.
Court-martial<',')d twice for various
offenses, Custer:at last found
fame and adoration in his
final impulsive act: rushing to
his death in 1876 at the Battle
of Little Bighorn. At
"Custer's Last Stand," he
became the heroic victim
of legend and song.
The Battle of Wounded Knee, 1890 Under stress for a halfcentury, Native Americans saw the rise of religious prophets predicting
danger or prosperity. A prophet of the plains, Wovoka, promised a
return to traditional life if people performed purification ceremonies.
These included the Ghost Dance, a ritual in which people joined hands
and whirled in a circle.
The Ghost Dance caught on among the Teton Sioux, who, still
struggling to adjust to reservation life, practiced ir with great urgency,
encouraged by Sitting Bull. In 1890, word spread that the Indians were
becoming restless. The government agent at the Pine Ridge Reservation
in South Dakota wired the army: "Indians are dancing in the snow and
are wild and crazy.... We need protection and we need it now." The
army dispatched the Seventh Cavalry, Custer's old unit, to the scene.
Hoping to calm the crisis, Indian police officers tried to arrest Sitting
Bull. When he hesitated, the officers shot and killed him. His grieving
followers, some 120 men and 230 women and children, surrendered and
were rounded up at a creek called Wounded Knee. As they were being dis­
armed, someone fired a shot. Soldiers opened fire, killing more than 200 Sioux.
The Massacre at Wounded Knee was the last major episode of violence in the
Indian wars.
New Policies Toward Native Americans
"I am the last Indian," Sitting Bull is reported to have said. Indeed, he was
among the last to have lived the life of a free Native American, roaming with
the buffalo herds across unobstructed plains, practicing traditional customs.
Critics of Federal Indian Policies While many white Americans called for
the destruction of Native Americans, others, horrified by the government's
policies, formed a growing peace movement. It found inspiration in Helen
Hunt Jackson'S 1881 publication A Century of Dishonor. Protesting what she
Apache chief Geronimo leads a
band of renegades. Apache resist­
ance ended with his surrender in
1886, the year of this photograph.
Chapter 14 • Section 2
495
Key Events in the Indian Wars, 1861-1890
Wars I Battles
Native American
Nations I Homelands
Key Players
Description I Outcome
Apache and
Navajo Wars
1861-1886
Apache in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Colorado
territories; Navajo in New
Mexico, Colorado territories
• Geronimo
• Col. Christopher "Kit"
Carson
Carson kills or relocates many Apache to reservations in 1862. Clashes
drag on until Geronimo's surrender in 1886. Navajo told to surrender in
1863, but before they can, Carson attacks, killing hundreds, destroying
homelands. Navajos moved to New Mexico reservation 'in 1865.
Sand Creek
Massacre
1864
Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho,
in central plains
• Black Kettle
• Col. John Chivington
Cheyenne massacres prompt Chivington to kill up to 500 surrendered
Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Black Kettle.
Red River War
1874-1875
Comanche and southern
branches of Cheyenne, Kiowa,
and Arapaho, in southern plains
• Comanche war parties
• Gen. William T. Sherman
• Lt. Gen. Philip H.
Sheridan
Southern plains Indians relocated to Oldahoma Indian Territory under
1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge. After buffalo hunters destroy the
Indians' food supply, Comanche warriors race to buffalo grazing areas
in Texas panhandle to kill hunters. Sherman and Sheridan defeat
warriors and open panhandle to cattle ranching.
Battle of
Little Bighorn
1876
Northern plains Sioux in
Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana
territories
•
•
•
•
U,S. tries to buy gold-rich Black Hills from Sioux. Talks fail. Custer's 7th
Cavalry is sent to round up Sioux, but meets huge enemy force. Custer
and some 200 men perish in "Custer's Last Stand."
Nez Perce War
1877
Largest branch of Nez Perce, in
Wallowa Valley of Idaho and
Washington territories and
Oregon
• Chief Joseph
• Gen. Oliver O. Howard
• Col. Nelson Miles
Howard orders Nez Perce to Idaho reservation; violence erupts. Joseph
leads some 700 men, women, and children on 1ADO-mile flight. His
200 warriors hold off Miles's 2,000 soldiers until halted 40 miles short
of Canada. Sent to Indian Territory, many die of disease. In 1885,
survivors moved to reservation in Washington Territory.
Batue of
Wounded Knee
1890
Sioux at Pine Ridge
Reservation, South Dakota
• Sitting Bull
• U.S. 7th Cavalry
Ghost Dance raises fears of Sioux uprising; Sitting Bull killed in
attempted arrest. His followers surrender and camp at Wounded Knee.
Shots are fired; some 200 Sioux die.
INTERPRETING CHARTS
This chart provides a brief sum­
mary of some of the key battles
that were fought in various areas
of the western interior. Making
Comparisons (a) What factors did
many of these clashes have in
common? (b) In what ways did they
differ?
496
Sitting Bull
Crazy Horse
Red Cloud
Lt. Col. George A, Custer
saw as the government's broken promises and treaties, Jackson wrote, "It makes
little difference ... where one opens the record of the history of the Indians;
every page and every year has its dark stain."
Attempts to Change Native American Culture As sincere as the reform­
ers may have been, most believed that Native Americans still needed to be "civi­
lized." That is, they should be made to give up their traditions, become
Christians, learn English, adopt white dress and customs, and support themselves
by farming and trades. Tribal elders were ordered to give up their religious beliefs
and rituals. Christian missionaries ran schools on the reservations.
In 1879, Army Captain Richard H. Pratt opened the United States Indian
Training and Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Children as young as
5 years old were taken from the reservations by coaxing, trickery, or force, and
sent to Carlisle and other such schools to be educated "as Americans." The chil­
dren were to be integrated into white society. This policy is called assimilation,
the process by which one society becomes a part of another, more dominant
society by adopting its culture.
In 1887, a federal law dismantled the Native American concept of shared
land in favor of the principle of private property highly valued by Americans,
The Dawes Act divided reservation land into individual plots, Each Native
American family headed by a man received a plot, usually 160 acres. These land­
holders were granted U.S. citizenship and were subject to local, state, and fed­
eral laws. Many Indian sympathizers believed that the land allocations would
make families self-supporting and create pride of ownership.
But the idea of taking up farming offended the beliefs of many Native
Americans. Smohalla, a religious teacher from the Northwest, retorted: "You
Chapter 14 • Looking to the West
tl
ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men~ But
how dare I cut off my mother's haid"
In reality, much reservation land was not suitable for farming. Many Native
Americans had no interest or experience in agriculture. Some sold their land to
speculators or were swindled out of it. Between 1887 and 1932, some two thirds
of the 138 million acres of Indian land wound up in the hands of whites.
The Opening of Indian Territory For the some 55 Indian nations that had
been forced into Indian Territory, worse trouble loomed. The territory con­
tained the largest unsettled farmland in the United States-about 2 million
unassigned acres. During the 1880s, as squatters overran the land, Congress
agreed to buyout Indian claims to the region.
On the morning of April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of homesteaders lined
up at the territory's borders. At the stroke of noon, bugles blew, pistols fired,
and the eager hordes surged forward, racing to stake a claim.
" [WJith a shout and a yell the swift riders shot out, then followed the
light buggies or wagons and last the lumbering prairie schooner and
freighters' wagons, with here and there even a man on a bicycle and
many too on foot-above all a great cloud of dust hovering like smoke
over a batt/efield. "
-newspaper reporter, 1889
By sundown, these settlers, called boomers, had staked claims on almost 2
million acres. Many boomers discovered that some of the best lands had been
grabbed by sooners, people who had sneaked past the government officials
earlier to mark their claims. Under continued pressure from settlers, Congress
created Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In the following years, the remainder of
Indian Territory was opened to settlement.
It took a half-century, more than a thousand battles, and the deaths of
about 950 United States soldiers to conquer the Native Americans. The clashes
also took the lives of countless Indians used by the army as scouts and fighters;
of settlers killed in Indian attacks; and of millions of Native American men,
women, and children who died in battles or on squalid reservations.
2
1. Describe early changes in the
lifestyle of the Plains Indians.
5. Identifying Assumptions What
assumptions about Native Ameri­
cans did sympathetic easterners
make when proposing improve­
ments on the reservations?
4. Describe two major federal
assimilation policies.
If
,:
"
CRITICAL THINKING
AND WRIl'ING
3. How did the Ghost Dance lead to a
tragic conflict?
I
'Assessment
READING
COMPREHENSION
2. Why were Indian treaties often
unsuccessful?
VIEWING HISTORY Officials
at the Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
Indian school took before-and-after
photographs of their students.
Analyzing Visual Information List
details that show the changes
undergone by these boys.
6. Writing a News Story As an east­
ern reporter traveling with an army
unit, report on one of the battles
discussed in this section.
r (Go
~'nline l
l
I
--PHSChool.com
For: An activity on Indian board..ing.l
schools Visit: PHSchooLcom Web Code: mrd-5142 Chapter 14 • Section 2
497
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